London Knights return to Memorial Cup final with 5-2 win over Moncton Wildcats

Globe and Mail

a day ago

The London Knights are going back to the Memorial Cup final.
Blake Montgomery scored the winner 3:35 into the third period to lift the Knights past the Moncton Wildcats 5-2 in the tournament's semifinal Friday.
London will take on the Medicine Hat Tigers in Sunday's battle for the top prize in Canadian junior hockey.
Denver Barkey — with an assist — Landon Sim and Jesse Nurmi also scored, while Austin Elliott made 21 saves for the Knights, who lost 4-3 to the Saginaw Spirit in last year's final.
Easton Cowan had an empty-net goal and added an assist, and Jacob Julien provided two helpers.
The Knights fell short of clinching a spot in this year's championship game earlier in the tournament with a 3-1 loss to the Tigers in their round-robin finale.
London has lost twice consecutively only once in its past 120 games — including playoffs and Memorial Cups — dating back to March 1, 2024.
It's a fifth Memorial Cup final appearance for the Ontario Hockey League champions. Only the Peterborough Petes and Kitchener Rangers have more with six apiece.
Caleb Desnoyers had a goal and an assist while Dyllan Gill also scored for Moncton. Mathis Rousseau stopped 32 shots.
The Wildcats, who also fell 3-2 in overtime to London in their tournament opener, beat the host Rimouski Oceanic 6-2 in the final-round robin game Wednesday to reach the semifinal.
Montgomery gave London a 3-2 lead early in the third when Sam Dickinson beat Moncton's Etienne Morin wide and set up the Ottawa Senators prospect, who'd snuck in behind Gill to score his first of the tournament.
Nurmi converted a centring feed from Julien to double the lead with 6:49 remaining. Julien knocked the puck between Markus Vidicek's legs off a faceoff to set up Nurmi.
The Wildcats jumped on a power play with 4:36 left — and eventually pulled the goalie for an extra attacker — but couldn't cut into the lead before Cowan made it 5-2 with 1:49 remaining.
The Knights swarmed the Wildcats in the first period and dominated shot count 18-5 after 20 minutes, but London struggled to hold the lead — and stay out of the penalty box.
Sim opened the scoring with a wraparound 4:07 into the game. He picked up a bouncing puck off the end boards after Oliver Bonk missed the net before quickly swinging around the net to give London the early lead.
Moncton's Etienne Morin fired a one-timer off the crossbar on a power play midway through the frame.
Desnoyers later equalized on the man-advantage, ripping a wrist shot from the left circle through Elliott at 18:20 after Sim took an interference penalty.
The Knights went ahead again 5:24 into the second period when Barkey hammered a slick feed from Cowan into a gaping net after the Knights skated circles around the Wildcats in the offensive zone.
Jesse Nurmi, however, took a slashing penalty 22 seconds later, leading to Gill's third goal of the tournament. Gill took a pass from Desnoyers and picked his spot with a shot off the post and in past a screened Elliott at 7:40.
The Knights finally jumped on the power play with nine minutes left in the second. Cowan, who had seven shots on goal, nearly scored off a dangerous give-and-go with Dickinson but couldn't solve Rousseau once again.
Moncton almost took its first lead late in the period when Gill's point shot deflected twice before bouncing off the post.